Defiance Falls Boxed Set: The Complete Defiance Falls Trilogy

by Dean, Ali

  I swallowed the bile in my throat. That word was so dismissive, it somehow undermined what they’d done.

  “That could mean a number of things,” Mitch said. “They might have acted on their own, wanting to get their family’s respect for getting info, or they failed at the follow-through, getting info or whatever the mission was.”

  Mission? Is that what they called it in the mafia? I really did think I might get sick. Maybe eating before all this hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

  “Or,” Cruz said, “Sean and Branden told everyone that Hazel was in on it and had info. They thought that was the case from seeing us together. Based on that intel, Seamus gave the green light to break into the Rosses’ house and later take Hazel. When Jeremy had to save her, they knew they’d crossed a line, and they’d done so based on bad intel. They didn’t find anything at the Rosses’ house, and Hazel didn’t have any information to give.”

  Dad sat up straighter beside me. “I think that’s exactly it. They’ve used Hazel as a threat to get me to do what they want for fifteen years. Now that they’ve hurt her, they’ve actually executed the threat. They could still hurt her again, but me pushing back even for a few weeks would hurt their businesses.”

  Moody was nodding from his chair across from us. “We always knew their biggest mistake was putting too much in your hands. They’d never relied so much on someone outside the family in the past, but you were too good at what you did, they just kept getting in deeper.”

  Dad shrugged. “That’s only because it’s technology. Times change. You can’t run the world without a hacker anymore, and you can’t breed hackers like you can criminals.”

  I looked around the table at my dad’s declaration. Did anyone else find that statement as absurd as I did? Emmett’s mouth was twitching, and Spike was fighting laughter too.

  Moody said, “They saw what you could do, and they couldn’t help themselves. They were amazed and fascinated and greedy. You can infiltrate any system, get them anywhere they want to be. Terrorists, governments, the most secure private industries, they could access through you.”

  Moody’s voice was reverent and my eyes swung between the two guys.

  “You can do all that?” I asked Dad.

  He shrugged. “I’m not proud of it. I wish I’d been using it for something better. I want to. That’s why I’m taking these risks to get out.”

  I’d known Dad was smart. He’d been able to get enough work to support us by the time he was only a year older than me, and without a high school diploma. I’d known he was special. I hadn’t a clue he was some kind of hacker genius.

  “Can you get out? What exactly are you planning to do with all the information you have about the Malones’ businesses?”

  Dad looked around the table, from Mitch and Cruz to the others. “That’s what we’re here to decide.”

  Chapter 9

  Cruz

  We finished debriefing Ruby and then had her leave. I didn’t like that she was in this position. On her own, with no protection. If Neil found out what she’d been up to, she could walk right into his arms without realizing what he was about to do to her. I struggled to hide a shudder. I knew what they’d done to the two women I loved most. But Ruby knew as well, and she’d chosen this.

  I looked over at Bodhi, who was still staring at her empty chair. I didn’t envy what he was going through. None of us did. It was almost like when I had to leave Hazel and watch her be with other guys throughout high school, only much worse. I’d done that to keep Hazel safe. Ruby was in the line of fire.

  “It’s all set up,” Jeremy said. “I’ve got every illegal enterprise documented and saved in numerous locations. Each set of information has a trigger, multiple actually, to send it to the necessary outlets should that time come.”

  Hazel turned to her dad. “Slow down. Explain. What do you have set? What outlets? Should it come to what?”

  Jeremy had a hard time breaking things down into manageable chunks, especially when he was coming off one of his hacking binges. I watched him give it his best shot for his daughter. “Over the past fifteen years, one of my jobs for the Malones was to erase any traces evidencing their wrongdoings. Not the dumping bodies in the river kind of clean up, the online sort,” he clarified, giving his daughter a tight smile.

  “And you didn’t do that?” Hazel asked.

  “I did. I knew the Malones also had a private security firm tracking my online activity as well as their insiders on the FBI. I erased it from their viewpoint. But I also saved all of it.”

  Jeremy said all this like it was some simple task, as straightforward as putting out the trash bin on the correct day of the week for the garbage truck.

  “I also pulled and saved data and information from illegal enterprises they were engaged in before my time. Arms dealing was already fading out by the time I came on the scene, but some of those particular transactions were the most damning.”

  Sometimes I wasn’t sure if the man was extraordinarily humble, or actually believed that what he could do wasn’t extraordinary. He went on as we all listened, somewhat dumbstruck.

  “The magnitude of the financial and political scandals together with the drug dealing and pharmaceutical drug corruption are bad. All that alone will seal their fate. But assisting terrorists to obtain weapons is a nail in the coffin.”

  The rest of us knew all of this, it’s what we’d been working toward for years, but it still took a moment for it to sink in.

  Hazel absorbed it quickly before asking, “But now what? That’s what I want to know.” Her eyes moved to me but she forged on. “Last time Cruz’s parents had solid evidence against the Malones, it didn’t end well when they tried to give it to the feds. Do you think it will be different now that there’s so much more evidence? They’d have to have someone in every department to shut down all the investigations that could arise from this kind of twenty- or thirty-year span of documented activity, right?”

  Hazel had honed right in on the first major hurdle.

  “Your dad hasn’t been the only one with a job. We’ve been working on something else too,” I told her. She’d been tense, in business mode, since we’d arrived. Now, I couldn’t stand the tension radiating from her any longer and I reached over to squeeze her knee.

  I let Moody update her on our project, knowing he was the one who’d pulled the most legwork, and it was really his baby.

  He told her, “We set up our own security company. We spent the first couple years doing small projects, built up some credibility, and now we’re doing some bigger contracts with the government.”

  Spike explained, “We used Moody’s dad’s connections in the financial world and my parents’ in the media world to get some business early on. We don’t go by our own names, obviously. They just recommended our firm by its business name.”

  Hazel was shaking her head, not on board with this. “But you’re so young, how does that work? I know your voices have changed and everything, but do you get on client calls? Do you ever have to meet in person?”

  Emmett answered, “We pretend to be weird computer geniuses who don’t like social interaction and prefer to communicate by email.” He said all this without looking at his uncle.

  Gramps raised his hand. “I’ve stood in on a couple of calls when necessary. I’m not just here to provide the food. I’ve assisted Jeremy and the boys with their efforts,” he said with a curt nod. He’d done a hell of a lot more than assist.

  “I mean, there’s also voice-changing technology, if we had to use it,” Moody mumbled.

  “Okay, so explain how this security business helps us fight the Malones?” Hazel didn’t hide her impatience. She was impressed, but didn’t take the time to stroke our egos. She wanted answers.

  I explained, “We used it to identify who the Malone insiders are in law enforcement. And to build relationships with the right people in the FBI. People who have enough authority, at least as a group, to get this evidence and a cas
e through.”

  Spike added, “And in the media. We had to identify the right people. All this information will go to the press if necessary.”

  Hazel blinked a few times. “Wow.” She couldn’t hide her amazement, and my hand squeezed her thigh again.

  “So, when do we pull the trigger?” she asked.

  There was an even longer pause then. This was where we weren’t all in agreement. The twins, Spike, and Moody were itching to take down the Malones. They wanted to put as many as they could behind bars. The ones who managed to escape jail time – because some would, undoubtedly – the guys wanted to hit them in other ways it would hurt – finances, reputation, blood.

  It had started with their need for vengeance on my behalf, for my mom and my family. For Jeremy, who’d been forced into a life he didn’t want. For Hazel, so she wouldn’t be a pawn in the Malones’ world without her awareness or consent.

  As our knowledge of the Malones’ activities grew, so did our hatred and need for vengeance. After what happened to Hazel on Thursday night at the hands of Branden and Sean, I was guessing the guys’ position had only grown stronger. I knew I wasn’t alone in wanting to hurt those two. Rage boiled inside me just thinking their names. I didn’t know if any of us would be able to let them off the hook, even if it destroyed the truce. We could wait though. For now. After all, I’d waited years to avenge my mother.

  While Mitch and Jeremy shared the same emotions, they weren’t quite so trigger happy.

  Jeremy said, “We aren’t going to leak any of this evidence unless we have to. The plan is to inform the Malones of what we’ve got on them. Give them stipulations to follow. If they violate those, then we leak the information.”

  Hazel’s mouth hung open and she opened and closed it a few times before Mitch continued, “We have enough information that we wouldn’t have to give it up all at once. We could do it piecemeal, with each infraction, until they understand just how much power we have over them.”

  Hazel finally managed to get out, “Why?” She didn’t clarify her question.

  Jeremy’s voice was solemn when he answered. “Dumping all this evidence on law enforcement and media in one go would be disastrous. It’d ignite World War Three, and we’d be right in the middle of it. They wouldn’t all go behind bars instantly; some might escape it entirely. They’d go after us while the law, the politicians, the reporters were still reeling with the information.”

  Bodhi sat forward on his seat, his jaw flexing. “They won’t hurt us if we’re ready. We know how to defend ourselves and we’ll keep family safe. We’ve got the Spot. We’ve got weapons. We know what we’re doing.”

  Spike was with Bodhi. “If we hit them with all this at once, their entire organization will blow up. They’ll be too busy dealing with fallout to deal with us, and it would be a dumb move to go for us with all eyes on them anyway.”

  Spike and Bodhi were fired up, but Moody sat back, arms crossed, and reflected, “They haven’t proven to be the brightest bulbs. Maybe past generations built this up, but Flynn, Seamus and now Neil and Sean? They were lazy. They relied on Jeremy, risked everything putting all that faith in him. They’re loose cannons. They might go after us just because they want to make a point. I’m with Jeremy and Mitch on this. Hold it over their heads until they fall in line, until they understand who’s in control.”

  Emmett was almost yelling when he questioned, “So, what? We wait for them to test out the validity of our threats, sit on the defensive end? We going to scold them like kids, leak one operation each time they mess with us and send a few Malones at a time to jail? Why not just do it all at once before they get a chance to regroup? We have the firepower. We might be smaller but we have what it takes.”

  Bodhi added, “They’re not going to agree to any of it. They might not retaliate when Braven stops shipping the supplies, but they’ll find other ways to continue what they’re doing. Or move on to something else, maybe even worse. I mean, the only thing they haven’t dipped in yet is sex trafficking. They need to be wiped out.”

  I knew Bodhi’s position was fueled in part by a burning need to get his hands on Neil Malone, and I understood that. He wanted Ruby out and safe, and putting Neil behind bars along with the rest of his family would do just that.

  All eyes moved to me. I felt the weight of them in my chest.

  Gramps broke the silence. “Cruz, what’s your position?”

  I looked at Hazel, and this time I felt her hand move to my knee to offer comfort. I needed it.

  “I don’t think the Malones are going to let us blackmail them into getting out of all illegal activity. They might allow an agreement for Jeremy and Braven getting out without any recourse, but even then it would be tenuous. I know that starting World War Three will set the course for the rest of our lives. I don’t want that for any of us. But we might not have a choice.”

  Everyone was quiet as I spoke. “I also don’t think we can let Branden and Sean off the hook for what they did to Hazel.” Hazel’s eyes were on her hand resting on my leg. “But I think that’s up to Hazel to decide.”

  Her eyes snapped to me at that. “That would decide everything. We go after them, right after what we did to Flynn Malone, there’s no shot at an agreement. It’s war.”

  “It’s already war,” one of the guys grumbled, Spike, I think.

  The attention in the room had shifted to Hazel now. She didn’t squirm under it, though I knew she sensed it. In less than a day, she’d gone from knowing nothing to holding all the power. What happened next was up to her. We could give her that. She deserved it.

  “What happens if they go for Dad or all of us at once?” She turned to her dad. “Are you the only one who knows how to get the right evidence to the right people?”

  “I set up coded instructions that Moody can decode and follow if necessary. But I also spent the past twelve hours setting up programs so that if something happens to me, information gets sent directly to the correct authorities or media outlets. I didn’t want to set up systems like this for all of us, what with the boys’ penchant for fighting and all. It will only go off if I end up in the ER or die, and even then each of you will get an alert with the ability to stop the information flowing out.”

  My head was spinning, and I’d already heard about Jeremy’s contingency plans. Hazel was blinking rapidly at him.

  “Right. I don’t really know how that works, and you’ll definitely need to give me lessons or something on how that’s even possible, but I think I get the gist. Basically, if you go to the ER or die, some database will get alerted and then it sends an order to release information by email or cloud or FedEx or whatever to non-Malone law enforcement and media outlets?”

  One side of Jeremy’s mouth tilted up in amusement. “That’s the gist of it, yeah.” He’d done a decent job oversimplifying and I’m sure Hazel’s version was killing him. From what Moody told me, there were maybe half a dozen people in the world who could do what Jeremy could do.

  Hazel nodded then and placed both hands on the table. She folded them in front of her and looked around at each of us. Then she announced her decision.

  “I’m with Cruz. We try for an agreement, but only to get Dad and Braven Pharma out, not for all their activities. And get the charges against Cruz dropped, obviously. We don’t want to monitor everything those lunatics do for eternity. As long as they aren’t forcing us to work with them or harming us, that’s enough. We can’t spend the rest of our lives acting like a law enforcement agency for the oldest and best-run mafia in the nation, right?”

  She swallowed. “I want them wiped out too. But I also want all of us safe. I want us all to have lives too. Let’s try for a truce. If they don’t take it, then we fight.”

  “And Branden and Sean?” I asked.

  Hazel let out a long, shaky breath. “I don’t know. Let’s see what happens with this first.”

  Chapter 10

  Hazel

  I wanted to be alone. But last time I�
��d asked for that, I’d felt the twins spying on me through the trees, then Kai had joined me and everything went downhill fast.

  I wasn’t going to get alone time, and I didn’t know if I would any time soon. But I did have Cruz, and he was letting me be. We were walking down a path on his grandparents’ property. The land wasn’t as expansive as the Lake, which had been passed down from the Braven side. But there was enough forest that we could pretend to get lost for a while.

  I just needed room to breathe. To think. I hadn’t realized I was walking toward the old tree house until I was standing in front of the ladder.

  “This thing’s still here?” I asked the unnecessary question as I looked right at the tree fort.

  “Still sturdy. Gramps wants to keep the property in the family. Figures someday there will be little kids around again to use it.”

  I shot a look at him over my shoulder. His uncle had kids, but they were ten years older than Cruz and didn’t live around here anymore. Cruz was the most likely one to settle in Defiance Falls someday.

  “Kids, huh? Really, Cruz?” I didn’t wait for him to answer as I stepped onto the ladder and climbed to the fort. He was right behind me.

  “Yeah, kids. How many do you want?”

  I laughed, because what else could I do? Then I climbed into the little house in the trees. There’d been some kissing here too, that summer. Most of the time though, we were with the other guys. We’d sit up here playing cards for hours.

  There was still a little shelf with stacks of cards and a couple board games. We’d been young enough for tree forts at fourteen. And now we had meetings about taking down Irish Mafia families. Right, and discussions about how many children we wanted.